Ile Aux Aigrettes

Ile aux Aigrettes is a islet less than 1km off of the southeast coast. The entire island is a nature reserve dedicated to recreating a natural environment similar to what Mauritius looked like before any people arrived. The extensive rehabilitation of the ecosystem includes weeding, replanting native spices, restoring the forest and reintroducing endemic birds and reptiles known to have once been inhabitants. Pictured above is the endemic and endangered Pink Pigeon which has been brought back from the brink of extinction (in 1991 only 10 birds remained.) Extinct birds which once living in Mauritius include the Dodo, Blue Pigeon, Broad-billed Parrot, Grey Parrot, Mascarene Swan, Mauritius Night Heron, Red Rail, Bourbon Crested Starling and many more.

The giant Aldabra tortoises roam freely. Originally, there were two tortoise species found in Mauritius. Because the animals can live for months without food and water they were the perfect protein for passing sailors to bring on long exertions at sea and are now extinct. The tortoises pictured here are native to the Seychelles but are the closest surviving relatives of the lost species and were introduced to help restore the fragile ecosystem.

The Ornate Day Gecko is another important part of the ecosystem. Endemic to Mauritius, their brightly colored bodies are hard to miss.

Pictured above, the Mauritius Fody is often confused the Madagascar Fody.

Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam Botanic Gardens

The Gardens were first the property of the foremost French governor of Maurtitius, Mahe de La Bourdonnais who created a vegetable garden to supply vegetables for his household, the town and visiting ships. The garden was also used as a nursery for plants imported from Europe, Asia and South America. Later, under the control of the French governor Pierre Poivre, spices were cultivated and ornamental trees were planted. After the malaria epidemic of 1966, thousands of eucalyptus trees were planted in the garden for transplanting in swamps in order to dry out the mosquito breeding grounds.






Today the garden boasts 500 species of plant, of which 25 are indigenous to the Mascarene Islands. Pictured above are the giant water lilies (Victoria amazonica). Originally from the Amazon, the Victoria amazonica is the largest water lily in the world with leaves ranging from 2 to 6 feet in diameter. Their life span is only a few days.





Picture to the left is the lotus (Nelumbo nucifera).











The gardens covers 60 acres which makes them a wonderful place to wander. The shade from the large palms is a refreshing break from the hot sun. There is also a tortoise pen housing giant tortoises who can weight more that 550 pounds (males) and live for over 100 years.




Pictured here, Bill and I playing on the roots of an enormous tree. Meanwhile, my mother is trying to find the name of the tree in the surprisingly unhelpful guide book. I would tell you its name, but we gave up on the book.





The gates behind us were a gift to the gardens from Fracois Lienard, a Frenchman born in India in 1862 who lived in Mauritius. I'm not really sure who he was but people in the garden seem pretty proud of the gates. In fact, I'm sure it will interest you all to know that the gate won first prize in the International Exhibition of London's Crystal Palace in 1862. Now if that doesn't get you to visit me here, I give up!

Cap Malheueux

One of the places I took my parents diving was at the Cap Divers in the very very north of the island. Even though the water on the east coast had been stirred up from the cyclone that was looming off of the coast, the visibility in the north is almost always spectacular. We had a lovely dive and enjoyed the beautiful view.

Bill took to wearing his sea sick wrist bands anytime he was in eyesight of a boat.

Cape Malheureux is the first place that the British landed in 1810. The church pictured above is called Notre Dame Auxiliatrice. It is a Roman Catholic chapel. It's bright red roof juxtaposed with the blues and greens of the ocean make for an idyllic view. In the background is Coin de Mire island.

Parental Visit

My parents recently traveled half way around the world to come visit me here in Mauritius. I brought them to some of my favorite places and I thought that since I've been seriously lacking on this blogging business I would use some of our outings to give you all some new information about my wonderful island.


I also want to thank my parents for coming. I had a great time!

Diving

Sometime between learning and ambassadoring, I discovered that I love to scuba dive. When I was living in South Africa in 2006, three friends and I stumbled upon the dive center at the University of KwaZulu Natal while looking for the pool. Before we knew it we were signed up for the NAUI Open Water Diver Course. I loved the experience of getting certified with a bunch of crazy South Africans and my even crazier American friends. After being certified in Sodwana Bay, SA we went on two dives in Tofo, Mozambique. After that, I had only one opportunity to dive in the BVIs before arriving in Mauritius. And so arriving here I was very much a beginner diver.

Not long after my arrival, a friend of mine brought me diving at the dive center he works. I instantly knew that my favorite part of Mauritius was going to be under the water. So I worked out at plan to be able to dive at Blues Diving in Belle Mare. I am now a PADI Advanced diver and am working on becoming a PADI Rescue diver.

Most of the diving I've done has been off of the east and north coasts. On a typical dive, I see lots and lots of beautiful fish and corrals, moray eels and if I'm lucky some giant eagle rays and whitetip or blacktip reef sharks. The more I dive the more I notice things like colorful nudibranches and camouflaged stone fish.

I am truly enjoying becoming a better diver and I absolutely love being under the water. I'll be sure to post some underwater picture to give you all a better idea of my new world.

Pictures from top: Belle Mare, where Blues Diving is located; Blues Diving Center; Andina; Lindsay; Alex.

Christmas in Mauritius

For Mauritians, "Father Christmas" comes on a boat. "Why does he come on a boat?" you ask. Well, silly, because it would be awfully hard for him to get around in a sleigh. And in Mauritius you do not put your stockings on the mantel, but your flip flops under the tree.
There are, however, some traditions which are similar. There were family dinners and gift exchanges. Everyone kept asking what my family does for Christmas and I didn't think "Go to Hunan Gourmet and see all the other Jew's who didn't feel like cooking so were left to eat Chinese food at the only restaurant open in Northampton" was the answer they were looking for. So I said that Americans also get together with their families and open presents and eat - I hope I represented you all well.
Merry Christmas!

Americanish Thanksgiving

I got it in my head that I wanted to attempt to pull off a real American Thanksgiving. The first step was to find an accomplice in this endeavor and since there was no real competition for this role, I immediately called my only American friend Miles. He agreed. Miles is incidentally one of my only friends with an oven so this worked out well in multiple ways. (By the way, you really don't think about how much American food is made in an oven until there isn't one available!) So, armed with recipes I had copied from the Internet and seriously limited culinary skills, we went to the supermarket to see what we could find for our feast. Here were some questionable substitutions we made:

green apples instead of celery

butternut squash instead of sweet potatoes

bags of white, green and pink marshmallows (the pink ones are strawberry flavored, the green ones I'm still not sure about)

onions to fry instead of French's Fried Onions (like anything could replace their canned goodness)

Our biggest problem turned out to be a lack of casserole dishes. Having no real use for ovens here, there is not much use for baking dishes. In the end we had to use what we had, which included a large glass salad bowl for the stuffing which did not break (as the phone call with a horrible connection from my mother in the middle of our adventure suggested it might) but did not cook very evenly either. At the end of the night, we served our friends the following:

• Chicken made by Miles' wonderful cook of a roommate. She also made peas and potatoes.
• Stuffing which really did taste like stuffing, even with the apples and the 15 minutes it spent in the microwave trying to cook the middle
• Green beans not casserole. Due to the lack of French's Fried Onions and the fact that we gave up on frying our own, we made a mixture of green beans, sauteed onions and cream of mushroom soup (Knorr's not Cambell's), sprinkled with almonds and baked. It was not horrible.
• Butternut Squash with maple syrup and melted marshmallows. Having not enough room in the oven, we decided to make this one on the stove.

All in all, it was a wonderful evening. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!